Maintain sanctity of facts: President to journalists

Kolkata: President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday asked journalists to maintain sanctity of facts while exercising the freedom to give their views.

"Many of the brains of journalism have strictly adhered to these principles that I am free to give my views but I cannot take liberty with the facts. Facts are to be reproduced as they are," Mukherjee said.

"Certain fundamentals are to be kept in mind, that is truth, credibility and placing the facts and making efforts to find out the truth", he said.

Mukherjee was speaking to at an event organised by the Indian Journalists? Association here where he also unveiled a memorial for two of Bengal’s first dailies Hicky’s Gazette and ‘Sangbad Prabhakar’.

Mukherjee compared the relation between journalists and political activists with that between fish and water.

“Just like fish cannot live out of water, similarly political activists cannot live if they do not have interaction with the journalists,” he said.

Mukherjee said he had got immense help from the writings of journalists for many of the speeches he had delivered in Parliament.

“I would only expect that this practice of not only sharing information with the readers but also to enhance their knowledge, the journalists today should continue to contribute,” he said.